Disclaimer: I don't TVD, no matter how much I wish I did. Any recognizable characters, plots and dialogue belong to the L.J. Smith and the CW.

A/N: To those of you who have reviewed regularly: You're the absolute best! 3 To those of you who review occasionally: Love to you as well. And to those of you who are just reading this story: I'm glad you keep coming back for more. Everyone who enjoys this story helps me enjoy it a little bit more. Thank you for reading, and now, onto the next chapter!

Elena

With every step Elena took, she tried to fight, but it was futile. Somehow, Finn had compelled her to not resist or complain, but that didn't mean she had to like it. She remembered Caroline's father's theory on resisting compulsion, but without practice, she had no success. Of course, that was compounded by the fact that he said you needed a calm mind, and with her following Finn deeper and deeper into the woods, calm was the last thing her mind was.

Finally, Finn spoke again, "We're almost there." He held back a branch for her as she passed with robotic steps.

"Where is there?" she asked.

Finn didn't answer. He started leading her again, but when he spoke, his voice was softer than it had been. "Did you know my family lived her long before Mystic Falls was dreamt of?"

"Rebekah told me," Elena said. She was curious what the area had been like in the time of human Originals, but she hadn't expected to hear about it from the person who kidnapped her as he led her to an uncertain fate.

Finn came to a sudden stop, and he ran his hand up the bark of a tree. He wasn't looking at Elena. She saw that his gaze was distant as he began to reminisce about his home.

"Did Rebekah tell you that the square is where the natives once gathered for worship? Or that, your school is built over their burial site? How about the fact that, just there" - he pointed to a clearing ahead to the left - "is where Mother first taught us some of her craft? Not that any but Kol had an inclination to learn."

He led her forward a while longer. They stood in front of a large boulder familiar to Elena. As she looked around, she realized they were near the entrance to the Lockwood cellar. She didn't know if Finn knew that. He appeared to be still lost in the past.

"Do you know this place as well?" she asked.

Finn nodded. "I do. Below us runs a series of tunnels. It was there that we took shelter from the wolves during full moons. My siblings played while I watched and waited. It was as though nature was providing protection. Mother always said there had to be balance."

"And now balance means that all of you have to die?" Elena asked, taking a careful step closer to Finn.

He turned to look at her, but there was no emotion in his eyes. His gaze was blank, and she thought perhaps that scared her more than the range of emotions she had been subject to from Klaus.

"We are abominations, Miss Gilbert," Finn said. Not only was his face devoid of emotion, but his voice was just as impassive. "We never should have existed, and the only way to counter our impact on the world is for my mother to take back what she has wrought."

"It doesn't seem fair," Elena said as she looked up at Finn, who had turned his gaze back toward the clearing he had indicated earlier. "You didn't ask to be made into this."

"Indeed no," Finn murmured. "Nor would I have asked if I knew what it meant." His face hardened as he turned back to her. "Or that I would spend nine hundred years alone in a coffin. But, we all have our roles to play. And now, yours is to stay out of the way until Mother can complete her spell."

So saying, Finn pulled her close before stomping down with one foot. A cavernous hole opened into the tunnel system, and without another word, Finn jumped with Elena in his arms. Almost as soon as her feet touched the ground, Finn released her and disappeared. Elena looked around, but she quickly realized she wasn't familiar with this section of tunnel. It wasn't along the way to the cavern that she, Bonnie, and Alaric had been working in over the summer.

She reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone to call for someone to come get her, or at least let Jeremy know she was okay. However, she was quick to notice that, not only was there no service down here, but in all the chaos of last night, she had forgotten to plug her phone in. She had less than 10% battery. Hoping and praying for the best, Elena held the phone up as high as she could and checked to see if she could pick up even a single bar. When that failed, she sighed and lowered the phone before switching it off and pocketing it.

She turned and, picking a random direction, started to walk. She hoped she would find an exit soon.

Before she could take more than a half dozen steps, a small stone skittered across the floor. Elena looked up and glanced back where it had come from. She couldn't see anything, but suddenly, a shape materialized and charged her.

Elena's head smacked back against the stone wall, and an arm pressed down against her throat as Rebekah leaned in close, her blonde hair brushing Elena's arms as she growled, "Hello, Elena. Going somewhere?"

"Rebekah?" Elena's voice was slurred from the force of her head hitting the wall. "What- what are you doing down here?"

Rebekah glowered down at Elena. It was her default expression these days.

"It's simple. I'm here to make sure you don't run away," Rebekah said, pressing a little harder against Elena's throat. "You see, everyone seems to want to bend over backwards for you. It's super annoying, but it does make it possible to use their fear to our own ends." She shoved back from Elena, knocking Elena's head against the rock wall again before she stepped away. "However, if you do run, I get to kill you. And personally, I'm hoping that happens, so if you want, I'll give you a head start." The grin she sent Elena's way sent chills down Elena's back, but she faced down the blonde Original.

Elena pressed a hand to the back of her throbbing head, but it came away clean. "And, whose ends are you working toward?" Elena asked as she steadied herself against the wall. She kept her distance from Rebekah, but she had to speak. Even if Damon didn't care what happened to Rebekah, Elena couldn't leave her in the dark. "If you're here, it must be your mother… She wants to kill you. All of you."

"How dare you speak about my mother!" Rebekah said, closing in on Elena again. "You're trying to turn me against her like you did with Klaus! It won't work! I don't trust you anymore - I never should have. All it got me was a dagger in my back!"

Elena found her back pressed against the wall again as Rebekah loomed over her. She didn't want to cower, but there wasn't anything keeping Rebekah from settling her score down here. She needed to try to find a way to escape, but for now, she just needed to stay alive.

"It's true!" Elena said. "She's working with Finn, and she plans to-"

A resounding smack cut Elena off, and the force of Rebekah's slap sent Elena sprawling. "I told you not to speak about my mother!"

Elena used her right hand to break her fall, but a sharp rock split the still healing skin from Esther's cut. As she winced and pulled herself into a sitting position, she heard Rebekah hiss and look down at her own right hand. Elena focused on making sure her own cut was clear of dirt - she was getting very sick of bleeding from interactions with the Mikaelsons - but she was aware of Rebekah looking from her own cut to Elena's.

"What the hell?" Rebekah asked, and Elena was wondering much the same. The sinking feeling in her stomach told her exactly what was happening.

Stefan

Stefan paced as he listened to Elena's phone ring on the other end of the line. After the third ring, her voicemail picked up again, and he resisted the urge to fling his phone across the room. She had wanted to talk to them this morning, but now that he and Damon were trying to get in touch, she couldn't be bothered to pick up her phone. Yes, they'd told her she was stupid for wanting to stop Esther's plan. Yes, they'd united against her, but it was in her best interest. Why couldn't she see that?

"Where is she?" Damon shouted once he hung up his seventh attempt to reach her. Stefan was sitting on the sofa with his head on the back of it. He hadn't even heard Elena's phone ring before her voicemail picked up, and Damon succumbed to the urge Stefan had resisted, chucking his phone against the far wall. After it clattered to the ground, Damon poured himself a large glass of bourbon and downed half of it. "She went and turned her damn phone off!"

"After this morning," Stefan said without moving, "are you surprised?"

"Elena doesn't usually ignore us just because we disagree," Damon said. "It's not my fault she went and got jealous."

Stefan thought it looked like Damon was preening at the idea of Elena being jealous, but he just rolled his eyes. "I think, given your choice for sleepover companion, it is entirely your fault."

Damon turned and glowered at Stefan. "So, she can go on and on about wanting to save Elijah, even if it means ruining our one and only shot at killing Klaus, but I spend one night with Rebekah and I'm the bad guy?"

"Always," Stefan said. "I'm not saying I agree with her, but she's always seen the best in people, even if it's not really there. Is it surprising she doesn't want to kill Elijah?"

Damon threw back the rest of his bourbon before he spoke, "Whatever. If she's not speaking to me, you can swoop in and sweep her off her feet all over again. Did you a favor."

"She's not speaking to me either," Stefan said as he picked his head up off the back of the couch at last. "Besides, she's better off without either one of us in her life."

Damon scowled. "Fine," he agreed. "Neither gets the girl. But, we still need to find her before she can ruin this plan."

"Have you tried Alaric?"

Both Stefan and Damon turned when another voice answered Stefan's question. "There's no need," Elijah said, entering the room with Alaric a couple of steps behind him. "He's here with me. Maybe he can tell you what he knows about where Elena is. He hasn't wanted to tell me."

Alaric furrowed his brow as he took the sofa facing Stefan. He glanced over at Damon, who had started on a new glass of bourbon.

"I told you," Alaric said, glancing over at Elijah. "I haven't seen her today. She called, but I haven't seen her."

"In fact," Elijah said as if Alaric hadn't spoken, "no one has been able to tell me anything about her. Jeremy claimed she was at home, but she was nowhere to be found."

"I literally just told you for the third time I haven't seen her," Alaric said. "I don't know what more I can say."

Elijah moved to the armchair in front of the fireplace, and he settled in it, drumming his fingers idly against one of the armrests.

"If no one wants to tell me under the misguided impression they're protecting her," Elijah said, the quiet menace Stefan was familiar with lacing his tone, "they should know that I've heard from Kol that there is more at play than previously believed. It is imperative that Elena be found so that she can tell me exactly what she and my mother discussed."

"We heard your crazy mother linked you and all your siblings," Damon said. "Things not working out with mommy dearest?"

"It would be wise, I think," Elijah said, without looking up from where his fingers traced the chair's carved detailing, "not to press me today. Yes, my mother has linked us, and-" His words were cut off by a hiss, and he turned his right hand over.

Across the palm, a jagged cut wept blood. It started to heal almost instantaneously, but it had been there. Elijah eyed the cut carefully, and as he did, he whispered in a voice so low that Stefan had to strain to hear, "Elena…"

Being so recently back on what Damon called the "bunny diet," the scent of even vampire blood was enough to tantalize Stefan, but under the general tang of blood, there was another, familiar scent. The smell of blood that had often been spilt around him, on him, and more recently, by him - Elena's blood, but how was it coming from a cut on Elijah's hand?

By the time all these thoughts had passed through his mind, Elijah's hand had healed completely, though he continued to gaze at his hand, and Stefan turned confused, concerned eyes on Alaric, who was looking back just as baffled.

Elijah shook his head before looking back up at them. "It would appear that Elena is also linked with us. If that's not enough motivation for you to find her, know that, should my mother achieve her goal of killing her children, you will die as well."

"Is that a threat?" Damon asked as he closed in on Elijah.

Elijah glanced up at him without a trace of concern on his face. "As you know, Damon, when I am threatening you, it is obvious. It's a shame you haven't learned to show respect even now. However, no, this is not a threat, simply a statement of fact. When Mikael was killed, we learned that an Original dying kills their entire line of sires. Meaning, should all of us die, every vampire on earth will die. That should sway you to the right side of this conflict. Find Elena and bring her to me. Do so by six past nine tonight."

"How very specific of you," Damon grumbled.

"By 9:07, the moon will be full, and my mother will have the power she needs to kill us all. So, do or do not follow the timeline, but accept that not doing so spells the end of your miserable lives. We all have our parts to play"

"Oh, and what are you going to be doing?" Stefan asked.

"Finding a way to stop my mother and convincing Klaus to help," Elijah responded. He stood, nodded to the three assembled men and flashed out of the room.

"I think you two got the easier task," Alaric said.

Stefan nodded, but Damon just poured himself a third drink and sauntered out of the room.